


Flash Frozen

by SensationalSunburst



Series: PawPaw!Cor [10]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Afterlife fic, Cor get's the... cold shoulder, F/M, Gen, Gentiana has HAD IT with Cor's shit, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Multi, Post Dawn, Unofficial Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-14
Packaged: 2018-11-28 18:48:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11423943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SensationalSunburst/pseuds/SensationalSunburst
Summary: The afterlife is supposed to be peaceful, but Cor Leonis never did know when to give up.ORIn which Gentiana and Cor come to an agreement.





	1. The Ultimate Cold Shoulder

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mushydesserts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mushydesserts/gifts).



> For mushydesserts, because we both love Cor and Gentiana. 
> 
> P.S- This could be considered a sequel/companion piece to The Welcome Party, Through the Veil and Omission.

“Aulea? Queen Aulea?”

Aulea glanced up, putting a hand on Slyva’s arm to pause her story of her recent visit to Gahlad as she heard Lunafreya’s voice echoing through Hammerhead's empty parking lot.

“Luna?” Aulea ventured, peering over the edge of the roof of Cid’s garage to spot where the young woman was braced stiffly on the ladder leading to the rooftop oasis that Slyva, Odessa and herself had created. They were clustered around a bright yellow kiddie pool, feet soaking in the cool water, their sandals abandoned under hilariously garish umbrellas and equally awful lounge chairs. But the wine was free flowing (an afterlife perk, Odessa rejoiced), the sun was warm and the fake grass beneath them was deceptively soft. Slyva flipped her sunglasses to the top of her head, tucking them into the nest of her blonde hair and smiled down at her daughter.

“Hello, my darling! Care to join us?” She said reaching her hand down to help haul Luna to the top of the roof.

“Ah, another time.” She dusted off her shorts and rolled her shoulders, “I need your help Aulea, I fear I have made a grave mistake.” Lunafreya grimaced, gripping tightly to her mother hands as she reached out to steady her.

“Cor has--”

“Kitty Cat?” Aulea said, pressing closer, shoulder to shoulder with Slyva. Behind them all, Odessa took a long drag of the nameless pink wine in her glass, an eyebrow raised at the spectacle.

“Yes, you see I-- I made a deal with Gentiana--” Lunafreya looked up with a degree of shame through her lashes at her mother's disapproving frown.

“I'd have thought you'd learn your lesson on that, Lunafreya. They are not to be trusted--”

“Well yes, but Noctis--”

“Noctis?” Aulea's concern morphed into barely concealed panic as she stepped forward, hands fluttering to grip Slyva's elbow.

“Yes, _astrals,_ let me speak!” Lunafreya snapped, and the queens before her lapsed into cowed silence.

“Noctis is plagued by nightmares _still_ and I have been looking for Carbuncle to ask if he would soothe them but I cannot find that creature anywhere. He will not answer me when I call! Gentiana said she would find him for me if I spoke to Cor about his… proclivity for “interference” in the realm of the living.” She explained, “But when I spoke to him, he grew irate, insisted that I was not longer the Oracle and disappeared. I fear he has gone to find Gentiana and do something rash. He does not know her temper.”

Aulea sighed, deflating to nearly fold in two before reaching out to pat Luna's shoulder in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture. Slyva had pulled her lip between her teeth, worrying it without biting and glanced to Aulea.  “Shall I get the boys? Backup may be needed.”

Lunafreya let out a small, quiet sound of distress.

“ _May_ , Luna, we may need backup. Don't worry, we shall go see what this is all about and be back in time for dinner. In fact! If you could ask Ignis to prepare that cucumber punch?” It was a gentle dismissal; a subtle indication that Luna was not to follow. Luna nodded with a frown on her face, kissing her mother's, Odessa's and Aulea's cheek before vanishing in a flurry of blue diamond dust.

“Let's be off then.”

 -

Meanwhile, Cor Lenois was far too furious to be daunted by the knowledge that he was taking on an opponent that far overpowered him. It was, quiet honestly, a strange feeling to know he’d likely lose, but with family on the line, he couldn’t back down.

After Lunafreya had gently tried to informed him that Shiva was considering essentially revoking his ability to travel back and forth across the Veil; threatening his ability to check up on those he'd left behind, he'd thrown his head back and laughed in the face of the girl's look of concern.

“You tell-- No! No, absolutely not. You are no longer the Oracle, Lunafreya. You will no longer do their bidding, it’s not your responsibility, not anymore.” He stepped back, already holding that ice hearted goddess in his mind's eye, even as Lunafreya sputtered in shock and reached for him in warning. “I'll take care of this.”

When he blinked next, he didn't know where he was. Not at first. The only thing he could register was that it was _freezing._ A spotless blue sky stretched above him through the jagged hole ripped in the roof. Snow, several feet of it, was piled in the corner of the large room he was in, the walls a rusted and beaten red. It was only when he spotted the cylinders toppled along the floor, their glass sides long since shattered and the glimpsed the bones tangled with tubes and rusted wires resting within that he realized where he was.

“Niflheim, Gentiana?” Cor said, looking up towards the platform where the Goddess, devoid of her usual human guise strolled along precarious walkways.

She was beautiful in the way a blade was beautiful, all blue skin, soft edges that he knew were actually razor sharp, draped in flowing translucent fabrics. She ran a fingertip along the railing, covering it in frost and smiled, eyes wide open, down at Cor below.

“This was my land, oh protector of kings, before they ever dreamt of death and destruction here.”

“I bet.” Cor said dryly, “However, I understand that you have something to discuss with me? In the future, I'd appreciate it if you left Lady Lunafreya out of your schemes. She is the Oracle no longer.” Cor crossed his arms in front of his chest to hide their shivering, as even though he’d changed into the heavy black winter fatigues he's worn the first and only time he’d stolen away into the facility, the cold was still seeping through the insulated fabric.

“Of kings and queens unnumbered, of souls uncounted, it is you who touches the Veil as to destroy it.” Shiva said. Her expression was nearly identical to that of her human mask, but there was something more to it now, something sharper. It made him want to back up, to put more between them, as he felt, instinctively, that was within her strike range.

But he was already dead, what more could she do?

“I'm not trying to destroy anything,” Cor argued. “But I will never stand by and let my family be hurt, not if I can help. I'll die, I _have_ died, before that happens.”

“The dead shall not interfere in the affairs of the living.” Shiva replied, stopping now at the top of the staircase separating them.

The bitter laugh that tore itself from Cor's throat seemed to surprise both of them.

“Interfere _! Interfere?_ You forced the spirit of a father to _murder_ his son!” Cor usually didn't feel when his body shifted in age. But he could feel his hair grow longer under his beanie, feel the bulking of his arms against his coat as his anger pushed his body to his stronger, thirty something self as opposed to the lean twenty something that stole a baby from a frozen research facility.

She began to descend the stairs and the temperature plummeted. Above them, the sky greyed, and thick snowflakes began to fall, so cold they burned when the touched down and stuck to his skin. His shivering transitioned immediately into a full body, teeth clattering shake, but he stiffened his frozen legs, refusing to give ground and scowled.

“Foolish men speak of sacrifices unknown.”

“You’re supposed to be on our side,” Cor said, stuttering through suddenly and painfully chapped lips. The cold sucked the moisture from the air and he blinked to clear his eyes of involuntary tears. The cold _hurt_ , and he found himself biting back what he would never admit were whimpers as each inhale turned to frigid knives against his lungs.

“It is I who protect the Veil between life and death--”

“I'm no threat to it!” He insisted, struggling to speak as she approached, even as every bone in his body urged him to flee. Where she stepped, ice formed in complicated fractiles and Cor found himself struggling to remain upright, unable to lift his feet to even stagger away as the cold tore through him, his clothing offering no protection.

“From Solheim to now, no mortal has ever resisted the call to paradise, except you, lion hearted, foolish man.” She was still smiling even as Cor gasped through an attempt at a counter argument, smiling as she pressed a single finger to his lips, smiling as Aulea snapped into the room in a cloud of crystal dust and screamed as she watched ice encase Cor, silencing his gasping, freezing him, half hunched and snarling.

“Cor! No! No! Gentiana release him!” Aulea cried, her clothing immediately thickening; dress elongating into thick boots, insulated pants and a matching coat, but even through the gloves that knitted together over her fingers, the ice around Cor burned her hands.

The air rippled around them, shattering blue and white like stained glass as Odessa, Slyva and the boys arrived, stunned into silence by Aulea's hysterics and the sudden disappearance of the Glacian.

“The hell is going on!?”  Cid growled, all but running to press his hands against the ice. He reared back and made to punch it when Clarus caught his arm.

“Don't, we don't know what will happen if it breaks.” He cautioned.

“Shiva apparently thought he was meddling too much, she made a deal with Lunafreya to try to get him to stop, but…” Slyva held both of Aulea’s hands in her own, rubbing them in an effort to warm them. Above, the sudden storm that had accompanied Shiva’s wrath disappeared, again revealing a peaceful blue sky.

“So _this_ was her solution?” Regis scoffed, his form shifting with his stress towards an older, harder version of the king. He tapped lightly on the foot or so of ice encasing his friend, searching for weak spots. But as he leaned down to look into Cor’s pain stricken expression, he froze as he spotted that his usually pale blue eyes were slowly bleeding into a violent fuchsia.

“Clarus…” Regis said, pointing. Clarus moved as one with Odessa, both Amicitia’s towering over Regis as they gently nudged him out of the way.

“What is it?” Slyva asked, now curled protectively around Aulea’s shivering form. Cid had huddled close to her other side, both of them forming a barrier against the arctic wind that swept through the devastated chamber.

“His eyes, they’re pink!” Odessa said, she crouched, frowning deeply. “He’s still alive in there."

“We’re already dead--” Cid drawled.

“Wait, where are we?” Regis said, turning to actually take in what was around them,  “What side of the Veil are we on?”

“We can’t be in the Beyond.” Aulea returned, “There are no ruins there. We’re on the other side.”

“We’re in Niflheim.” Regis said. “I remember this place from… _Gods_. It was years ago. He was sent here to gather information.”

“He came back with a baby.” Clarus deadpanned.

“I have never heard this story.” Slyva said.

“Prompto.” Aulea replied, edging her little company forward towards Cor’s frozen visage, “The baby he stole from the labs was Prompto.”

“As cute as this all is,” Cid growled, “Let’s defrost him and get the hell out of here before the bitch comes back.”

“As expected of the bold; rescuing their own from the inhospitable cold.”

The entire party stiffened, expecting Shiva’s return, but as they swung their eyes around they could see no origin to the voice reverberating through the chamber. Only Aulea seemed to relax, shoulders dripping from where they'd risen to her ears, and twitched forward to place both of her hands back on the burning cold block of ice.

“Eternal Etro,” Aulea said, and the rest of the party truly froze now, shock numbing their limbs to stillness as a sliver of sunlight, dancing just at the edge of the opening in the roof solidified into the glowing figure of what may have been a woman. It was too big, just tall enough to avoid stooping, and glowing so brightly that they had to avert their eyes. Where its feet must have been, the snow immediately melted, revealing the rusted flooring beneath.

“Eternal Etro,” Aulea repeated, looking up through her auburn curls at the figuring now looming over them all, “I beg of you release him. I swear he means no harm.”

“Be at ease, Queen of Lucis.”

She seemed to have no voice of her own, instead, it was as if her voice was being projected directly into their minds to vibrate through their blood and into their bones. The figure moved one glowing hand to the shell of ice that was Cor Leonis and from within, Cor’s eyes shone even brighter, the light refracting within to block his face from view.

“Once again, I must ask your forgiveness for my children.”

Aulea had to close her eyes to smile up at the burning figure, but she could feel the return of the expression in the feeling of warmth spreading throughout her body and coalescing in her palms. Instantly, the ice in front of her began to melt and she could hear, rather than see, that Etro’s palm was doing to the same to the ice above Cor.

“Children are a unique pleasure.” Aulea shrugged, blearily opening her eyes to watch as Cor’s hands, clenched together against his chest were freed from the ice.

“It’s working!” Slyva cried and Aulea pushed forward to wrap her hands around Cor’s limp, motionless fingers.

“Kitty Cat.” She sang, “Come on you reckless boy. Come back to us.”

In a flash and a rush of steam the ice surrounding him evaporated and Regis darted forward to catch him  before he could crumple to the ground. Cor’s pupils were wide, iris’s still fuchsia and unfocused even as he began to shake, teeth clattering, before Regis hauled him up to tuck his face into his neck.

“Be at peace, Queen of Lucis.” Came Etro’s voice and she was gone, leaving the group to blink sunspots from their eyes.

“Back to the Citadel.” Regis commanded and at once, they obeyed, disappearing from the realm of the living in pops of magic through the Veil.

Experience and practice meant that they stumbled through the Veil to the sparce but bright and open room that made up Cor’s chambers in the Citadel. He had no patience for decorating,and instead the room was dressed in gray, except for the windowsills filled with blooming sapphire syllebloosms.

“Cor?” Regis tried, turning Cor's freezing face away from his neck, but the man's empty expression didn't change as his head lolled limply against Regis’s palm.

“Give 'em here.” Cid huffed, ripping the charcoal comforter from the bed to wrap it around a suddenly fifteen year old Cor. He deposited him on the bed with far more care than his scowl  betrayed and climbed up to rest Cor's head in his lap.

“Almost like the time with the voretooths.” Clarus sighed, running his hands through his hair; an unconscious self soothing technique he did more and more as he got used to actually _having_ hair. Odessa frowned and wrapped one arm around his waist, tucking herself into his side.

“I hate that story.” She said. Clarus dropped his arm around her shoulders and smiled mirthlessly at where Regis had propped himself against the headboard, bracketing Cor in between himself and Cid.

“I think we all do.” Aulea said, climbing up onto the bed to fit herself on Regis’s other side. She leaned across his lap and frowned at the color of Cor's eyes.

“What story?” Slyva asked, looking between them all.

“On our way to see Aulea, back when we were what, twenty something? Cor was just a kid.” Clarus said, drawing forward to sit on the edge of the bed with Odessa, “We took on a hunt for some Scourge ridden voretooths.”

“Fool boy didn't say a word when he got diced like a tomato,” Cid scowled, resisting the urge to tug on the fool boy in question’s disheveled hair, “Voretooth poison ain't nothin to play with, but it's especially bad the smaller you are, and as you can seen he's a beanpole.”

“We ran out of antidotes and between the poison and the bleeding, we almost lost him.” Regis said softly. He blinked away the memory of feeling Cor’s chest stilling beneath his hands in the desert heat, the too soft sigh that came just before, the bloody handprints left on his cheeks as he’d desperately searched for life in dulled eyes.

“He also pushed you off a cliff,” Cid grumbled, pointing a finger of the hand not combing through Cor’s hair at Regis, “but I think he mistook ya for someone else.”

“I hate you.” Came the hissed reply, and all eyes in the room snapped down as Cor glared blearily up at Cid. A collective sigh of relief blew through the company and this time Cid took a lock of Cor’s hair and tugged, albeit gently.

“No, you don't.” He scoffed.

“I don't.” Cor agreed, his voice was slurred but as his eyes slipped closed they were once again a familiar pale blue. “I hate _Gentiana_.”

“That's alright, Kitty Cat.” Aulea soothed, sprawling over Regis lap to rub her hand up and down Cor's arm where he continued to shiver under the blanket, pulling his legs in to curl more completely around Cid's outstretched legs.

“Her… her mom's nice though.” He sighed.

“Who's?” Slyva asked, although she already knew the answer. Cor’s eyes opened to exhausted slits as he searched out the former Oracle.

“Shiva's.” He smirked, “Eternal Etro.” Cor’s eyes flashed fushia as he spoke the name and Slyva danced forward, a cooing like sound of warning on her lips.

“Names have power, Sir Leonis, don't speak her name unless you mean to use it.” She said, frowning as Cor let his eyes slip close with a dismissive hum.

At Odessa’s pinched expression, Slyva laid her hand on her arm.

“Communing with the Astrals is physically and mentally exhausting,” She explained, “He’ll need to rest, but he’ll be alright.”

“Fucking freezing.” Cor mumbled.

“Color me surprised, you were frozen in a block of ice you impulsive fool.” Aulea said. “You're lucky Lunafreya came to us. We would never have found you.”

“Snitch.” Came the soft reply and with a sigh he went lax in sleep.

“A--” Regis began, but Aulea put her fingers to his lips.

“Let me guess,” She smiled, “A terror.”


	2. Friends in High Places

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cor and doesn't know what he's expecting, but a nice chat with Etro wasn't it.

In his heart and mind, Cor Leonis always returned to the sea.

Which is why he was unsurprised when he opened his eyes and found himself sitting on the warm, golden sands of what could only have been Galdin Quay. He _was_ surprised, however, that he recognized the bay without the resort smack dab in the middle of it. There was nothing but sand, sea and rock, as if the sprawling resort had never been built at all.

A shiver rocked him as cold the likes of which he had never known, frigid and cutting straight through his bones curled him into a ball, grinding his heels into the sand as he tried, and failed, to bite back a cry.

The feeling passed as abruptly as it started and he uncurled, panting through the fading pain and letting his hands drop to bury them in the sand. The warmth was a drastic difference to the biting cold and it _hurt_ , but he sighed in relief as the sun began to warm his frosted skin.

A cursory glance revealed that he was alone. Except for _something_ up on the ridge to his right; the same ridge, he remembered, where he, in a different version of the bay, was buried.

Cor stood and lifted his hand to shield his eyes against the noonday sun to squint at the ridge. He was only able to make out that it was most definitely a person. But, they were _glowing_. Glowing, or reflective, and considering what had happened last time he dealt with a god, Cor frowned, turned his back and made to sit back down.

He’d had quite enough of the Astrals.

Only, instead of sand, his ass met rock and he jumped so hard he nearly went over the cliff. Nearly, as when he jerked forward, the wind howling in his ears, blowing his hair up to rage around his head, he slammed into what felt like a wall and was thrown onto his back, legs still dangling over the edge, heels knocking against the rockface.

“A feline indeed.”

Cor blinked and turned his head to the figure seated to his left that had somehow spoken in Aulea’s voice. Or, not spoken. The voice had been in his mind, not out loud.

It held the figure of a woman, the dress she wore shining like sunlight through the clouds, bright, but not enough to blind. Her skin however, was a moving portrait of the stars, black as night with countless constellations, far off nebulas and hundreds of thousands of tiny, glittering dots all moving and swirling as if her figure were simply a window to the night’s sky.

“Uh.”

“What do they call you?”  

“Cor Leonis.” He replied automatically. She seemed friendly enough, or at the very least, she hadn’t attacked him yet. So he risked a glance across the quay, again searching for signs of life besides his own. But he could see nothing but the shadow of fish dancing beneath the surface of the waves.

Even Angelgard Island was gone.

"The names we have for ourselves have a different power than the names given to us,” She said, “What do they call you?”

“The Immortal.” Cor tried.

The woman turned her face towards him at last and only a lifetime of practice kept his expression even. Her eyes were fuchsia gems, multifaceted in the sun, only vaguely shaped like eyes and completely devoid of pupils. Her lips were a colorless crystal, reflecting the stars racing across her skin, but they seemed to be carved in a gentle smile. She was wholly unsettling but somehow, unthreatening.

“No.”

“No? Hm, they… called me Marshall.” Cor said. But she again shook her head. She had no hair, but a nebula of brilliant purple and green and blue seemed to be circling across her head where hair would normally start, spiraling down towards her spine into the maw of a black hole.

“These names were earned, not given.” She said, and he could hear amusement now in the lilt of Aulea’s stolen voice. “What did those who loved you call you.”

Cor scoffed, “Fool boy.”

She said nothing, but he got the feeling she was waiting for him to continue.

“Son.” He said, “Kid.”

“They called me PawPaw and Kitty Cat.” He felt his lips pull themselves into a smile against his will, and the figure dipped her head in acknowledgment.

“Kitty Cat.” She said, and Cor ran a heavy hand down his face that _that_ was the name she locked in on.

“My last name, Leonis? Sounds like lion. Which is a kind of cat, so she calls… called me Kitty Cat.” Cor explained, correcting as he wasn’t sure he was going to be able to get himself out of the trouble he’d made this time. Shockingly, fighting the Astrals was more difficult than anticipated.

“What did they call you?” Cor asked.

“They called me Eternal Etro.” She said, and Cor felt a shockwave echo through the bay as she spoke the name, scaring a flock of birds from the bushes tucked in the rocks into the sky and rippling across the surface of the water, cleanly slicing the foam off the waves.

“Ah.” Cor said.

“As brave as a lion as well.” Etro intoned. “It is I who maintains the balance between life and death. Men once wept in my presence.”

“You helped Aulea.” Cor said, “So, you can’t be too dangerous.”

“My daughter believes you to be very dangerous.”

“She’s mistaken.” Cor insisted, struggling to maintain the easy air of their conversation thus far. “I’m dead, I can’t do anything.” He rolled his shoulders to resist the dejected slump they were trying to form.

“You are capable of more than you know, Kitty Cat.” Etro said and Cor bit back a sigh. Etro didn’t move, but he could feel her focus shifting away from him. Her chest did not rise with an inhale or sink with an exhale; beside the turn of her head back out towards the water she was utterly motionless at his side, a statue draped in sunlight.

“Forgive me, but I don’t think that’s true.” He immediately thought of Sorrel, sprawled dazed and broken on baked, sandy blacktop, the enraging feeling of helplessness as Cindy was forced to kill in his defense; Conner's horrified shaking.

“You seek to protect.”

“Yes.” Cor said emphatically, “Yes. Always. To protect them.” _As I couldn't before._

“My children are not infallible.” Etro said and all Cor could see was Noctis, young Noctis, skewered on his father's sword, slumped over where he was pinned to the throne he'd only sat upon once. He could still feel the blood that had seeped through his clothing, staining his skin. Feel the burn of where he'd scrubbed his arms raw to try to remove the phantom weight of yet another dead king.

“That’s one hell of an understatement.” Cor said, and the sound that echoed through his mind could have been a chuckle.

“Despite your brash nature, I deem you worthy to return, wherein you shall continue your guard with free reign to pass through the Veil unburdened.” Etro stood, and Cor found himself following as she floated to her feet, dress of light whipping about in an unseen wind. Power built up around her as she spoke, her voice growing in volume even though she wasn’t yelling. An odd feeling, like the static of a limb that's fallen asleep, built up in his joints until he was wincing through the unique, unsettling fullness.  “As it is declared, shall it be heard and let him go, unhindered, under the protection of I, Eternal Etro.”

Etro reached forward, pressing the entirely of her palm against Cor's chest. Her hand burned, branding the skin over his heart through his shirt and jacket and without moving, she shoved him clear off the top of the ridge and out into the open air.

“ _He pushed you off a cliff--”_

Cor blinked his eyes open to the feeling of someone gently combing their fingers through his hair. And considering that he could feel the vibration if Cid's voice on the leg his head was currently resting on, he had a safe bet as to who it was. It was a struggle to open his eyes, hard to resist the weight of sleep in his limbs as he took stock of yes, he was back in the Beyond, yes, everyone was there and _yes_ , Cid was telling that same damn story _a-fucking-gain._

“I hate you.” Cor wheezed, and he hardly restrained his smile when he get Cid gently tugged on his hair, because he didn't hate him, not at all.


	3. Given Names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cor's conversation with Etro left him musing over his "given" names.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know. I thought this was done too.  
> But just... this.  
> Then I'm done.  
> ;)

When Clarus first called him “ **son** ,” Cor wasn’t sure who he was talking to. Nobody had ever called him that before; he’d never had a nickname. It was a difficult, seeing as his name had only three letters. He’d blinked as Clarus had smiled down at him, watching with increasing confusion as his expression, something that looked a little bit like pride, dripped off his face along with the sweat from their successful hunt. Clarus wasn’t much older than him, not enough to be his father at least, and when he explained why he was so confused, Clarus had laughed, but the sound was somehow much stiffer than he’d heard it before.

But he kept calling him “son,” even after he’d had one of his own.

* * *

 

Regis had called him “ **kid** ” only once. It was accompanied by a slap on the back that was almost as awkward as the word itself as it crashed from his mouth, flopping limply to the sand below. It sounded as if he'd _practiced_ and the thought of Regis muttering to himself, likely attempting to copy Cid, trying to sound less regal than he'd been groomed to be was so absurd that, for the first time in a long time, Cor had thrown his head back and _cackled_. The rest of them had followed suit, laughing even harder as Regis's face slowly turned to magma.

Weskham laughed himself to his knees.

 

* * *

 

The future queen of Lucis took corners like a racecar driver, sharp and hard. So sharp, in fact, that Cor had been forced to leap back, employing the kind of footwork he only used in the field to avoid sending both her and her fiance to the ground. Aulea had apologized profusely until Regis had reached out to tuck her into his side, smiling like the lovestruck fool he was.

“No fear, Leonis always lands on his feet.”

“Leonis? Like, like lion?” Aulea had said, a manic grin and a giggle in her voice. There was mischief in her deep blue eyes that foretold a lifetime of trouble ahead. “How suitable! Cats always land on their feet, is-- isn’t--”

She was laughing so hard, the sound light and bright as it echoed through the gardens, that it took her four more tries to get it out.

“Isn’t that right, **_Kitty Cat_ **!”

* * *

  


“Just keep him over there, babe.” Julian, Iris’s husband said, turning 18 month old Sorrel away from the grill for the umpteenth time. The toddler was drawn to the smell of roasting hotdogs and hamburgers, classic fare with unique recipes courtesy of lovingly preserved copies of Ignis’s notebooks. Sorrel pouted, but his mother’s lap seemed just as inviting as he lifted tiny, grabbing hands up to her. Across the table, Conner was drooling, fast asleep, in his mother’s lap, Cindy’s game of tag having tired him out. But Sorrel was relentless, and after a moment, something by Cor’s flower garden caught his eye. The boy wiggled and Iris, without looking, set him down to let him toddle off, confident that between Cor, Talcott, Aranea, Julian and the tall ash colored fence around Cor’s backyard, that the boy wouldn’t get into any trouble.

(Aranea had shocked them all by being a goddamn _wizard_ with children. She gave no explanation beside her characteristic wicked smirk.)

Cor’s attention shifted away from the conversation at hand and he leaned back in his chair to watch as Sorrel bounded face first into the patch of gladiolus he had in the corner of his garden. They were taller than he was, and he disappeared for a full minute, giggling happily until he stumbled out, glancing over his shoulder and waving, clutching a single red stem in his hands. Cor looked up sharply, but there was nobody leering over his fence, which made sense as the house that had once sat behind his had been destroyed in the Fall and never rebuilt. Sorrel continued to wave before stopping, nodding seriously, or as seriously as a toddler could and turned back towards the adults. His eyes narrowed in on Cor, who soothed his expression from suspicion into a smile and held out his arms for the boy.

“ **PawPaw**!” Sorrel cried, breaking into a perilous approximation for a sprint. And Cor short circuited, stunned to stillness, even as he was passed a lapful of excited toddler and a flower was pressed into his hands.

“Did--” Cor took a breath, centering himself against the surge of emotions flooding his heart and looked over the top of Sorrel’s dark hair at where Cindy and Iris were beaming, phones out to photograph his expression, “Did you train him to say that?”

“You don’t _train_ children, Leonis you _teach_ them.” Aranea sighed.

“Semantics.”

“PawPaw!” Sorrel said, pressing the flower more firmly into his hand. A tiny finger poked at his cheek to get his attention.

“Yes, thank you Sorrel” Cor smiled, “It's beautiful.”


End file.
